Ambassadors of the United States

Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated as ambassadors by the President to serve as United Statesdiplomats to individual nations of the world, to international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Their appointment needs to be confirmed by the United States Senate.[1] An ambassador can be appointed during a recess, but he or she can only serve as ambassador until the end of the next session of Congress unless subsequently confirmed.[2] Ambassadors serve "at the pleasure of the President", meaning they can be dismissed at any time. Appointments change regularly for various reasons, such as reassignment or retirement.

An ambassador may be a career Foreign Service Officer (career diplomat - CD) or a political appointee (PA). In most cases, career foreign service officers serve a tour of approximately three years per ambassadorship whereas political appointees customarily tender their resignations upon the inauguration of a new president. As embassies fall under the State Department's jurisdiction, ambassadors answer directly to the Secretary of State.

The United States Department of State provides lists of ambassadors which are updated periodically.[3] (A recent list {pdf} was issued on December 4, 2018.[4] A further 24 nominees were confirmed on January 2, 2019, and a number of ambassadorships remain vacant.) A listing by country of past chiefs of mission is maintained by the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State.[5] That same office maintains a list of the names and appointment dates of past and present ambassadors-at-large,[6] as well as chiefs of mission to international organizations.[7] This information may also be available in the final pages of the aforementioned periodically updated lists of overseas ambassadors.[3]

Note that the information in this list is subject to change due to regular personnel changes resulting from retirements, reassignments, etc. The State Department posts updated lists of ambassadors approximately monthly, accessible via an interactive menu-based website.[3] As of early June 2018 there remained 28 vacant ambassadorships.[8]

These diplomatic officials report directly to the Secretary of State. Many oversee a portfolio not restricted to one nation, often an overall goal, and are not usually subject to Senate confirmation.[136][131][137] Unlike the State Department offices and diplomats listed in other sections of this Article, the offices and special envoys/representatives/coordinators listed in this Section are created and staffed by direction of top Federal Executive administrators - primarily U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of State - whose political or organizational management philosophies may not be shared by their successors.[138][139][140] As such, many of these positions may go unfilled upon assumption of office by successor Presidential Administrations, with their offices sometimes merged with or subsumed into other offices, or abolished altogether.

Bhutan: According to the U.S. State Department, "The United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan have not established formal diplomatic relations; however, the two governments have informal and cordial relations".[168] Informal contact with the nation of Bhutan is maintained through the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.[168]

Iran: On April 7, 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[169] On April 24, 1981, the Swiss government assumed representation of U.S. interests in Tehran, and Algeria assumed representation of Iranian interests in the United States.[170] Currently, Iranian interests in the United States are represented by the government of Pakistan. The U.S. Department of State named Iran a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" on January 19, 1984.[171]

North Korea: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not on friendly terms with the United States, and while talks between the two countries are ongoing, there is no exchange of ambassadors. Sweden functions as Protective Power for the United States in Pyongyang and performs limited consular responsibilities for U.S. citizens in North Korea.[172]

Many well-known individuals have served the United States as ambassadors, or in formerly analogous positions such as envoy, including several who also became President of the United States (indicated in boldface below). Some notable ambassadors have included:

^President Morales ordered the expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg as well as all U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel in September 2008. The U.S. Government ordered the reciprocal expulsion of the Bolivian Ambassador in Washington, Gustavo Guzman. Source: U.S. Department of State Background Notes on Bolivia

^In 1989 the military government of Burma changed the name of the nation to Myanmar, but the United States government—and other Western governments—still refer to the country as Burma in official usage. See Myanmar.

^The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum was closed on February 7, 1996. Timothy Michael Carney was the last ambassador to Sudan. The embassy was reopened on May 23, 2002, with Jeffrey Millington as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim. There has been no U.S. ambassador in Khartoum since then. Source U.S. Department of State.

^After formal relations were reestablished in 2010 after five years, the embassy was again suspended on February 6, 2014. Poland became the protecting power until its embassy closed on July 27, at which point the Czech Republic took responsibility.

^President Chavez ordered the expulsion of the U.S. Ambassador, John Duddy, on September 11, 2008, in solidarity with the Bolivian government's decision to expel the U.S. Ambassador in La Paz. The U.S. Government ordered the reciprocal expulsion of the Venezuelan Ambassador in Washington. Source: U.S. Department of State Background Notes on Venezuela

^"Inspection of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs"(PDF). www.oversight.gov. February 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2018. With the creation of the Secretary of State’s Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (S/SRAP) in 2009, the country desks for Afghanistan and Pakistan transferred out of SCA to the new entity. However, in June 2017, the Department reintegrated S/SRAP’s Afghanistan and Pakistan offices and its policy, support, foreign assistance, and leadership functions into SCA

^"Inspection of U.S. Mission to Somalia"(PDF). stateoig.gov. October 2018. Archived(PDF) from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018. From May 2007 to September 2015, U.S. Special Envoys (later Special Representatives) and their staffs worked in the Somalia Unit, housed within Embassy Nairobi.

^ ab Office established September 2015 by Secretary of State John Kerry. "Transparency Coordinator". www.state.gov. September 8, 2015. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2018.